Line breaks leave town without water, Public Works with headaches

It was ‘all hands on deck’ for the employees of the City of Malta last week as aged pipes bursts around town, leaving many without water for extended periods including the hospital and school – the latter shut down for a day because of the water problems.

Last Tuesday afternoon, City officials and employees received reports of low water pressure from residents. Later, toward the end of the workday, a small break in a waterline was discovered on 1st Avenue East near the Great Northern Motel which the Public Works crew planned to repair early the next morning. A little after midnight, however, Public Works Director Jim Truelove received a call from Phillips County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch reporting that the Phillips County Hospital was completely without water Director Truelove ran tests and checked the storage tanks atop Hillcrest and determined there were several breaks in water lines around town.

Malta Mayor Shyla Jones said the original leak by the GN started when a 4-inch fire suppression line was damaged.

Early Wednesday morning, Malta School’s Superintendent Kris Kuehn phoned Director Truelove to see if water would be restored to the elementary school as busses would start running to pick up students at 6 a.m. Director Truelove wasn't sure when water would be functioning correctly and school was canceled for the day. Director Truelove continued to close valves around town until the hospital once again had water at around 6:30 a.m.

Nearly 12 hours later, Mayor Jones received a text from Director Truelove at about midnight, early Thursday morning, reporting a new waterline break on Central Avenue near Art’s Furniture. As leaks sprung up on both sides of the avenue, Director Truelove knew there was a problem had to be with the water main in the area. Around 4 a.m., Mayor Jones started receiving text messages on her phone reporting more breaks around town. The Public works crew spent much of the following day fixing leaks around town. At about 5:30 p.m., Mayor Jones started getting more text messages, these stating the residents had no water at all (including the hospital, again.)

Mayor Jones got a call from Director Truelove and Truelove reported he feared the entire water system was about to entirely shut down. Mayor Jones took to Facebook and asked residents to immediately stop using their water and asked KMMR’s Greg Kielb to make the announcement on the radio. Mayor Jones – traveling from a doctor’s appointment in Billings during Thursday’s calamity -- got to Zortman at about 8 p.m. and called Truelove for an update.

“I call Jim and tell him I am worried that the system has too much pressure on it and it is going to keep breaking. He started shutting down valves to make repairs,” Mayor Jones said.

Mayor Jones called all the Malta City Council members and Malta City employees and asked them to go to City Hall and answer calls from concerned citizens. Mayor Jones also called the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office and asked them to both set off the emergency siren atop City Hall and send out phone and email messages through the new and improved 911 emergency alert system (see Sheriff's Office updates 911 system on this page for more information.) Mayor Jones then contacted Greg Spear, County Emergency Disaster Coordinator, to inform him the City of Malta might need to be classified as a disaster site.

With the number one goal of getting the hospital’s water turned back on, Director Truelove and three other Public Works Crew members – working on little to no sleep – started turning valves around town in hopes of relieving pressure (meanwhile Phillip Henderson and John Demarais have joined the efforts to assist the City workers.) After much discussion – including talks with the engineering firm in charge of the City’s ongoing water project and the leadership of the construction crew conducting the work – it was determined that following the repair work on Central Avenue earlier in the day, one of the valves that fed the old main was still in place with service lines which weren’t capped on the ends, and water had been running down that old main since about 2 p.m.

“All that water ran underground for approximately nine hours so we have a sinking trench by the new main that will need to be repaired,” Mayor Jones said.

The City's Public Works Crew, employees and Council members went home at about midnight as water was restored to all of Malta. At about 6 a.m. Friday morning, Director Truelove started his day by looking for leaks around town (knowing that the water being shut down the night before would lead to heavy usage from about 6 a.m. until 8 a.m. on Friday, causing stress to the water lines about town.)

Director Truelove and Mayor Jones found a few breaks around town on Friday and the Public Works crew fixed a valve around quitting time at 5 p.m. Thirty minutes later, Malta’s Rocky Mummey – doing much of the asphalt and paving work around town – called and reported one of his trucks has fallen into a sinkhole on 1st Street West. Around this time, Director Truelove also discovers that the main sewer line near Westside Self Service is leaking so, once again, the Public Works Crew was asked to stay late and make repairs (which lasted until about 10 p.m.)

“So, the crew will still be busy next week making repairs,” Mayor Jones said on Sunday, “and we feel we should not have any more problems with homes or businesses losing water, but there is no guarantee with a system as old as this one.”

Director Truelove worked approximately 53 hours last week working on water breaks (many of those hours he was assisted by the Public Works crew.) Mayor Jones thanked all the City employees as well as the citizens of Malta for their patience during a trying time.

“The City of Malta has some very dedicated employees and thanks to them, Malta citizens can now flush their toilets and use water whenever they want to,” she said. “Jim, Eric, Dayla and Matt, I really appreciate your dedication and hard work for the City this past week. I would also like to thank Malta residents for being patient and we are sorry for the inconvenience you had of no water on Wednesday morning and Thursday evening. I would also like to thank all of the people that came and called to help, brought food to the crew and lighting when they worked after dark. Thanks to anyone who had the knowledge to help brainstorm ideas, and our engineers for helping us figure out what valves needed to be turned. The construction season is just starting for the remainder of our water project. We hope you will not have to experience no water again, but we still have a lot of really old infrastructure in the ground so I can make no guarantees.”